After a flashback to Zoe's and Mal's days in the wars six years previous, we cut to the modern day where the Serenity crew is running a salvage operation on a deserted ship and are forced to flee with the cargo when the Alliance show up. Their buddy Badger refuses to buy the cargo so they head off to the rim worlds after picking up three passengers: Book, Simon, and Dobson. En route someone sends a signal to the Alliance and it turns out to be Dobson, an undercover Federal agent, who arrests Simon but is glad to take the whole crew in. He shoots Kaylee before being captured, and Simon forces Mal to flee in return for his doctoring services. When Mal investigates Simon's cargo he finds a naked woman...

Aaron Barnhart

Matthew Gilbert

A wonderful, imaginative mess brimming with possibility. About a dysfunctional family of space cowboys, the sci-fi series arrives not fully formed, like an elaborate photo that's still clarifying in developing fluid. While many shows burst onto the scene with slick pilots and quickly deteriorate into mediocrity, I'm thinking Firefly is on the opposite creative journey.

Staff [Not Credited]

In a new season largely bereft of innovative ideas or daring concepts, Firefly stands out like a supermodel at a bus stop... The end result is a new and different form for storytelling and characters with engaging stories to tell. [19 Sept 2002]

Robert Bianco

Firefly offers the same well-balanced blend of humor, action, sharply drawn characters and unexpected twists on genre conventions. And if you have so far resisted the vamp-call of Buffy, this more mainstream sci-fi adventure may be your ticket into Whedon's TV universe.

Ken Tucker

Mark Dawidziak

While often great fun, the series' premiere occasionally shows the strain of trying to blend all of those genres into one sleek package. On the plus side of the Firefly universe, the show is expertly paced and is full of those wickedly humorous asides that fans of "Buffy" and its ever-improving spinoff, "Angel," expect from the mischievous Whedon. [20 Sept 2002, p.E1]

Amy Amatangelo

Alan Sepinwall

The whole space cowboy gimmick shouldn't work, but Whedon and co-creator Tim Minear have managed to create a world where space stations and men on horseback can plausibly co-exist. Little touches like deliberately old-fashioned dialogue - one character describes the bar fight as "just an honest brawl between folk" - help immensely. [19 Sept 2002]

David Zurawik

While the action genre and, indeed, Friday nights on Fox, are most targeted at young men, particularly adolescent males, I have to admit I kind of like Firefly. I'm not sure, though, whether that says more about my level of maturity than it does the series' potential appeal to older viewers. [20 Sept 2002, p.1E]

Manual Mendoza

If there's hope, it lies in the original version, which after getting off to a slow start did a wonderful job of distinguishing who was who and made you want to know more about them. Hopefully, Fox and Whedon can find a happy compromise, and the cultists can start their keyboards. [20 Sept 2002]

David Bianculli

Steve Johnson

Whedon's dialogue here, without contemporary pop culture to play against, feels a touch heavy. And there's only one great laugh, rare for so clever a writer. The result is that Firefly is intriguing but not compelling, but it least has the promise of a bright fellow at the helm. [20 Sept 2002, p.C3]

Rob Owen

If Firefly weren't from Joss Whedon, the talented, respected creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," this review would probably be a lot more dismissive. Because of his track record -- six seasons of "Buffy," five of them good; the successful and ultimately distinctive spinoff series "Angel" -- Firefly gets the benefit of the doubt despite an inauspicious debut. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just so-so. [20 Sept 2002, p.40]

Jonathan Storm

Caryn James

This time the wrenching together of genres is tortured. In its rough first episode on Fox tonight, Firefly is even more of a confusing mess than the description makes it sound. It's a crazy quilt of "Star Wars," "Mad Max" and "Stagecoach," just to mention the most obvious films it calls to mind. [20 Sept 2002, p.E26]